Tuesday Teaser – WHIL is Coming Soon!

It’s right around the corner – the release of the 4th Find Me book, ‘Where Hope is Lost’. You’ll need to wear your big kid panties for this book, y’all. Things are messy in Riley’s world.

“Stay down,” Jin warned.

Two more shots. That was five total. From all fours, I searched the shadows for answers. They played with my eyes, twisting and morphing into shapes that weren’t real. We couldn’t crawl back to the cabin, but I couldn’t stand either. A shift was happening in my brain; reality and fantasy became dance partners, mingling and moving in tandem. Every shadow of the forest turned into someone I knew. Matt leered at me from behind a tree, with Bobby and Alan shimmering into shape beside him. My head spun. Skip stepped out from behind the skeletal remains of a bush, a smile on his broad face. Fin was there too, talking from across the woods. He waved for me to come to him, to follow him down the trail. At his back, two children, my children, darted from one tree to another, laughing. Fin kept talking, his mouth moving with urgency, but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t hear anything.

“What’s he saying,” I asked. “I can’t hear…” Someone tugged on my arm as Fin turned away from us, fading into the trail like mist. “Wait,” I called. “Wait for me!”

Both my arms were lifted and my heels brushed against the ground as I was dragged away. I felt it coming, another break that would take me out of this world and into another, but then the scenery changed and I was set down hard on my ass. My cheek exploded from pain. Jin had slapped me hard across the face. While a tear ran out of my left eye from the sting, I stared up at him, shocked.

“Are you here?” he demanded, his voice thick with concern. “Are you here with me?”

I nodded, trembling in every joint, unsure of what was real and what wasn’t. “I’m here,” I said. “I’m here.”

He bent forward and yanked me upright. With his face an inch from mine, he hissed, “Then run!”